A Kenyan student has found the solution to Nairobi's traffic nightmare

Patrick Waweru, a computer science student at the University of Nairobi, has designed a traffic monitoring system to ease the notorious traffic congestion in Nairobi. The invention aims to reduce the time and fuel motorists use searching for parking spaces in the city.

Waweru’s system uses geomagnetic sensors, installed underground, that detect earth's magnetic fields. When a vehicle approaches the sensors or parks above them, the sensor detects the motion and sends information to the server, and then proceeds to warn motorists of impending congestion.

Kenya’s Transport and Urban Decongestion Committee (TUDC) attributes the traffic to poor city planning. The city’s roads were built for a smaller population than the 3.4 million residents who live in Nairobi today. Other sources of traffic are the poorly regulated matatus (minibuses) and a growing population who use private cars as their main mode of travel.

Waweru says that the information from the sensors will be displayed in the form of a map that can be searched on a browser using a mobile phone or a tablet. Waweru’s system differs from the existing traffic congestion monitors because it will also send text message alerts to drivers.

This is not the first attempt to develop a strategy to ease traffic. Twende Twende (Swahili for “let’s go”), developed by the IBM research centre in Nairobi, aimed to ease Nairobi’s infamous congestion by taking pictures using existing low-cost cameras and estimating traffic flow. While the solution did not require expensive road construction, Twende Twende had low image quality and the camera had limited reach.

Some Kenyans have spoken out against Waweru’s system saying it won’t fix the problem. Kenyans in Nairobi have called for a more organised system comprised of a rapid bus transit system, traffic cameras, regulation of matatus and an underground metro.   

Waweru launched the traffic system in early August at Innovation Week at the University of Nairobi.